ISLAMABAD, April 27: The government will take all measures to ensure the implementation of legislation against smoking in the country, said Minister of State for Health Hamid Yar Hiraj here on Sunday.

He was speaking at the concluding session of a three-day national advocacy conference on tobacco-free initiative and promotion of healthy lifestyles, organised by the ministry of health and the World Health Organization.

Mr Hiraj said there was a dire need to explore other options like economic alternatives to tobacco production to properly control the use of tobacco in the country.

“The main challenge that we are facing is to counter advertising campaigns through education and information, issuing strong warnings about health hazards of smoking and imposing restrictions on cigarette advertising.”

He said President Pervez Musharraf had promulgated two ordinances for the control of smoking which had been appreciated by the WHO and other international agencies.

He added that the newly-promulgated ordinances prohibited smoking in public places and restricted sale of cigarettes to minors besides curtailing cigarette advertising.

The minister said the government had also launched an anti- smoking campaign with a commitment to inform and educate the masses about health hazards of smoking.

He said smoking had been declining in the developed countries while multinational tobacco companies had been targeting markets in the developing countries. “They rely heavily on advertising, promotional activities and sponsorship of sports and cultural events and spend thousands of dollars on their campaigns.”

He said most smokers did not perceive a personal risk and relevance as the ill-effects take a long time to develop, this poses a serious challenge to health educators and health-care providers.

Appreciating the holding of conferences as a part of anti-smoking campaign, he said professionals from all relevant sectors had discussed the important implementation issues related to tobacco control programme, which would obviously select a way to implement the ordinances in an affective way.—APP